Look closely at the headlines that appear above a November 6, 2017, article on Civil Beat. The first one is totally false. The second one is too, and is also foolish and patronizing.
As the article itself makes clear, there are actually plenty of water sources remaining at the Waianae Boat Harbor. They are just a little farther from the adjacent illegal squatter camp than the source at the harbor from which they had been taking free water for the past decade.
So it simply is not true that there is “No Water For The Homeless At The Waianae Boat Harbor Camp.” They just have to get it from other spigots at the harbor.
The second headline is also false. The article itself makes clear that the squatters “found out about” the pending spigot shutdown a full week before it occurred. So, clearly, someone told them about it.
The obvious other problem with the second headline is the use of the term “their water.” It’s not “their water,” of course. It’s water from a public spigot that the hundreds of squatters at the illegal encampment have been allowed to take at will for the past ten years.
Nobody seems to know what all this water use costs taxpayers, and Civil Beat didn’t bother to ask. It just labeled the water “their water” and cast the story as if the mean old government is unjustly taking it away, something the article itself negates.
The article also questions, repeatedly, whether temporarily cutting off one water source for a construction project is part of some sinister plot to discourage people from illegally squatting on state land, which officials strenuously deny.
In a token sop to reality, the state’s homeless honcho notes that people aren’t supposed to be living at the illegal camp. He explains that his role is to “create opportunities to move people out of these areas that are not meant for people to live,” but stresses that “We certainly have no intention at this time to do an enforcement on the property.”
Civil Beat doesn’t even question whether enforcement will ever occur, or what conditions would be necessary for it to take place.
The article includes various complaints that — although the illegal campers “found out about” the pending shutdown of the water source a full week before it occurred — the state failed to “inform community members soon enough.”
It’s truly a shame that illegal squatters have to suffer from the same type of routine government dysfunction and poor communication as the rest of us — who have paid for their water use over the past ten years.
It’s interesting that a boss of the squatter camp says they are willing to pay for water if the state would simply install meters.
So now the question is whether the state hasn’t installed meters because of routine neglect, or whether the state has simply declined because installing meters would signify official acceptance of the illegal encampment — and without actually preventing anyone from taking free water from the other water sources.
Perhaps the state has concluded that it’s best to just do nothing.
Some things just don’t seem to change much.
UPDATE: Civil Beat has quietly changed the second headline on the Waianae squatter story — with no acknowledgment or explanation. It’s not much better, and fails to convey the fact that water remains available from additional sources at the same harbor from which the squatters were previously taking water.
Honolulu Homeless Crisis 